Human Rights in Saddam Hussein's Iraq - 'Saddam's Dirty Dozen'

'Saddam's Dirty Dozen'

According to officials of the United States State Department, many human rights abuses in Saddam Hussein's Iraq were largely carried out in person or by the orders of Saddam Hussein and eleven other people. The term "Saddam's Dirty Dozen" was coined in October 2002 (from a novel by E.M. Nathanson, later adapted as a film directed by Robert Aldrich) and used by US officials to describe this group. Most members of the group held high positions in the Iraqi government and membership went all the way from Saddam's personal guard to Saddam's sons. The list was used by the Bush Administration to help argue that the 2003 Iraq war was against Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party leadership, rather than against the Iraqi people. The members are:

• Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), Iraqi President, responsible for many torturings, killings and of ordering the 1988 cleansing of Kurds in Northern Iraq.
• Qusay Hussein (1966–2003), son of the president, head of the elite Republican Guard, believed to have been chosen by Saddam as his successor.
• Uday Hussein (1964–2003), son of the president, had a private torture chamber and of the rapes and killings of many women. He was partially paralyzed after a 1996 attempt on his life, and was leader of the paramilitary group Fedayeen Saddam and of the Iraqi media.
• Taha Yassin Ramadan (1938-2007), Vice-President. He oversaw the mass killings of a Shi'a revolt in 1991, and he was born in Iraqi Kurdistan.
• Tariq Aziz (b. 1936), Foreign Minister of Iraq, backed up the executions by hanging of political opponents after the revolution of 1968.
• Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (1951-2007), Hussein's half brother, leader of the Iraqi secret service, Mukhabarat. He was Iraq's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
• Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti (b.?), Hussein's half brother, he was the leader of the Mukhabarat during the 1991 Gulf War. Director of Iraq's general security from 1991 to 1996. He was involved in the 1991 suppression of Kurds.
• Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti (b.?), Hussein's half brother, former senior Interior Minister who was also Saddam's presidential adviser. Shot in the leg by Uday Hussein in 1995. He has ordered tortures, rapes, murders and deportations.
• Ali Hassan al-Majid (1941-2010), Chemical Ali, mastermind behind Saddam's lethal gassing of rebel Kurds in 1988. A first cousin of Saddam Hussein;
• Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri (b. 1942), military commander, vice-president of the Revolutionary Command Council and deputy commander in chief of the armed forces during various military campaigns.
• Aziz Saleh Nuhmah (b. ?), appointed governor of Kuwait from November 1990 to February 1991, ordered looting of stores and rapes of Kuwaiti women during his tenure. Also ordered the destruction of Shi'a holy sites during the 1970s and 1980s as governor of two Iraqi provinces.
• Mohammed Amza Zubeidi (1938-2005), alias Saddam's shi'a thug, Prime Minister of Iraq from 1991 to 1993 – to have ordered many executions.